The city of Johns Creek’s decision to drop out of the North Fulton Radio Infrastructure intergovernmental agreement will cost the city of Sandy Springs $600,000 to $700,000 to pay its share, according to Sandy Springs Chief of Police Terry Sult.

At its special called meeting Wednesday at Heritage Sandy Springs, the Sandy Springs City Council unanimously approved a resolution to adopt a revised agreement.

The resolution was needed after the Johns Creek City Council voted to drop out of the agreement Jan. 14, citing the fact that the other cities — Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta and Milton — did not put a contract out for bid before procuring the vendor for the system.

Alpharetta, Roswell and Milton have all approved a similar resolution.

Motorola offered the cities an end-of-the-year discount if they entered into an agreement by Dec. 31. All cities signed before the end of the year except for Johns Creek.

“The system cost didn’t change, but the amount for the city of Sandy Springs did,” he said. “The portions of the various cities’ percentages changes. We now have to pay 29.68 percent.”

The cities’ weighted portion is based upon population, size and the number of radios they have.

Sult said the agreement states the amount cannot exceed $16 million.

“We’re at about $14.5 million. Within that $16 million, that gives us a $1.5 million contingency,” said Sult.

Of that $14.5 million, Sandy Springs would end up paying about $4.3 million.

The city has allocated an additional $1 million for the agreement from the general fund balance.

“The city was planning on paying for this over a couple of years,” said Sult. “We already budgeted $2 million this fiscal year, and another $1 million was discussed. In 2014, we’ll have to figure out how to fund the rest.”

The project timeline is 14 to 18 months, according to Sult.

City spokesperson Sharon Kraun said if Johns Creek or another city wants to join the agreement in the future, it will have to be approved.

What’s Next:

The council will vote on amending the budget to reallocate $1 million for the Radio Infrastructure intergovernmental agreement at its meeting Tuesday.

So $2 million is the approved budget for Sandy Springs and the City will try and figure out how to come up with another $2.4 million? How about taking that out of the City Council and the pin head's salary. Take it to VOTE you pin heads.

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